Are you thinking of Lombardy poplars as your "very tall sticks groups covered in leaves?"

They don't live real long; in fact, you can see in this picture that some of the trees have a bit of die-back even tho' they appear to be quite young. Still, they have their place - especially as a windbreak. And, there are other poplar cultivars.

Looking thru the web, I can see that the folks at North Dakota State University give wind breaks a lot of thought (surprise?)
www.ag.ndsu.edu/trees/handbook/ndhand-1.htm

And here is the nicest tree selection site I've ever seen: http://selectree.calpoly.edu/attribute_search.lasso

Now, you just need someone with real-life experience building windbreaks and/or very local knowledge to chime in.

I'm much closer to Calgary than Aurora.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful:

I won't try to answer all your questions either, but I would advise you to forget about Aspens. When you see them growing around the Denver area, it's with extra watering and generally in a cool green lawn. Even then they aren't always long lived. I wouldn't expect them to survive more than a year or two with no extra water.

We have Pinon pines and One-seed junipers down here that live on natural rainfall, and they are what I would recommend. But they aren't fast growing, so there's not much of a windbreak for awhile. Take away the supplemental watering after only two years and they'll slow down even more. You could jump up to Ponderosa pines; they'll grow faster and taller but they need a little more water yet, probably permanently. Maybe you want to put in just a few Ponderosas closer in, and the more drought tolerant ones farther out.

My suggestion is for a 7 to 10 year watering plan, via a drip irrigation setup. Then the trees can grow to a little bit more effective size before you cut the water off, and you could gradually reduce the frequency of watering over a number of years.

There's a tough deciduous shrub/tree called Buffalo serviceberry that has silver leaves and red berries; it would be a nice contrast to the evergreens here and there, and it takes windy and dry conditions. You can mix in some Gambel's ("scrub") oaks too, for a natural foothills look and some Fall color. Both of these plants are shrubby with natural rainfall but more tree-like with some extra water.

Steve the lombardy poplars was a good guess but not it. The branches of this thing grow up like very straight sticks and can be almost orangish. The leaves are usually a lighter green. The whole tree sways in the wind and with one next to the other there is a sway almost like grass in the wind.

Thanks for the links.

Shudavies, the county book said forget about aspens also and it is doing the best of everything so far, my one lone aspen. My child picked it, hard to say no.

I've got mostly ponderosas and love then, great ideas, the pondies are closer to the house so I can hose water with a 125 foot hose. I'm gonna look into that serviceberry.

I am so depressed. It is WAY TOO HOT for plants this young. This is horrible. And it's expected to continue? That is AWFUL. It' ok with afternoon rain and cloud cover but even that has been sparse. Colorado. Oy. I may just stick totally to watering and site prep this year.

Just a quick observation on ponderosa pine, Herbalicious:

Over many years, as I have driven into the Columbia Basin, I've noted the demarcation line where the ponderosa pine forest ends - about Fishtrap Lake along I90.

The trees there are really stunted and, of course, the real giant ponderosa are in the forests of the Cascades in southern Oregon. But, the trees on into the Selkirks are much larger than those near Fishtrap.

According to the Forest Service, the larger trees are growing in average annual precipitation of about 22 inches and above.

The University of Colorado shows that Aurora has annual precip of 15.4 so if you need to get to 22 inches or above, you've got a deficit of about 7 inches. Not a lot to make up but I'm sure it would make sense to give the trees supplemental water or at least a good soaking a couple of times in the Spring and a couple of times in the Fall.

Rain in the Selkirks generally does not fall during July and August. Considerably to the north but this may work as a "rule of thumb."

Steve

Oh, and serviceberry is common amongst the ponderosa here.

I planted both service berry and buffalo berry bushes in my yard at Parker 3 years ago. By far, the buffalo berry are the fastest growing on the least amount of water which must be why my homesteading relatives in South Dakota used them in their windbreaks on the prairie (very much like Aurora). Well that and the really incredible jelly one can make from the berries which are really too tart to eat off the branch. The service berry is probably a more conventionally attractive bush, however.

In Aurora Colorado, I would venture to say that in a "good year", the ponderosas could make it through pretty well on natural precipitation. In an average (15" or so) year, probably one winter watering and one or two other waterings during other dry spells would keep them green and healthy. Only in a dry year would you need to water 4 or 5 times. This is assuming that you put down at least an inch each time you water, and it doesn't run off.

But for Pinon pines, you would only want to water at all during the very driest years. They can get root rot from too much water. The reason you would want to water more in the first years after planting them is just to get them to grow faster. (Ponderosas can put on 2 feet in a good year, while Pinons will only grow about 8 inches a year max.) Pinons generally grow at lower, hotter elevations than Ponderosas.

So when it's hot out like it is now, if you want to look out at your windbreak and not feel guilty of neglect or excessive water usage, do consider some groupings of Pinons, at least on the outer perimeters. Good luck and stay cool!

Were you thinking of an Austree in your OP? It's a willow and needs water. Ponderosa don't grow out here without a lot of help. Junipers, buffalo berry, New Mexico privets make decent windbreaks. Finding a tree on the eastern plains that doesn't get a spooky windburned look is hard -- darned near impossible out here.

I wonder if the orange-branched, lighter green-leaved "living fences" you are seeing are young russian olive trees, Herbalicious. In suburban areas they are considered junk trees, but on the open (and windy) plains where windbreaks are necessary they probably still serve a purpose. I had one in my yard in Aurora a few years back and the colors you describe match. As a young tree, it was really gorgeous--swaying in the wind with a fountain of branches. As it grew older, it began to look pretty spooky, though. We cut it down.

In general, if you pick a tree that grows fast, it will need a lot of water, and it will tend to break up in wind. It will also tend to die quickly.

Some people who are trying to get a wind break growing will plant some fastgrowing trees along with some slower growing trees. The fast growing trees come in quickly, but as soon as the slower growing trees come in enough, the fast growing trees are removed and replaced with more slow growing trees.

Imagine you are standing there with a shower hose watering a single 1.5 foot blue spruce. About how long would you be standing there if it was a deep watering in clay soil with grass mulched in? I dig in with a file to check the soil and it is wet as far as the file goes down. By night time, it is totally dry at the top 5 inches, and this is clay soil, it should hold the water. Is it the heat????? The mulch isn't even helping, or what? I'm having the same problem with the cotoneasters which are just HATING this weather. We had NO SPRING, you guys, none.

If I did plant the quick lived guys, how do they get removed? A tree digger? Or just whack em off with a chain saw and leave the roots?

I think they are austrees!! And I think the gold panner hybrid is what my neighbors here have, I was wondering why they had fall colors right now and thought it was the weather. *blush* This place keeps me humble and laughing at myself.

I think you have to be doing the right thing by watering a small spruce where you are right now, Herbalicious. Maybe you'd better not water every day, tho'.

You probably can't expect very much water retention. The soil is likely to be very dry generally and from what I find on the web, much of the soil around Aurora has almost equal parts sand and clay - "sandy clay" they are calling it. That's okay to start with and should be able to be vastly improved with the addition of organic matter. But, right now, your irrigation water isn't just evaporating - it's going down and out in all directions. Hopefully, your trees will learn to follow it.

A "rule of thumb" for composted material in the garden is to apply about 2 to 4 bushels per 100 square feet per year. I can tell you it takes a LOT of compost to go very far. Washington State U talks about 1.5 cubic yards per 1000 squart feet. Their specialists say that tree planting holes should be amended "at a rate no higher than 15% of the planting hole volume. The compost is not intended to replace the planting hole soil." I'm not sure if this about the same as garden soil amendment or not.

I think you should do both - amend the soil with composted material and spread an organic mulch on the surface. The mulch could be something like wood chips and should be much cheaper to put down by the yard than finished compost or even manure.

One thing I realized when I reread my earlier posting on ponerosa was I didn't give you a reference point beyond saying that these pines grow well where annual precip is above 22 inches. There at Fishtrap where the stunted pines stop - the nearest town of any size on out into the arid Columbia Basin is Ritzville. This town has an annual precip of 11.5 inches according to WSU. Somewhere in between, it gets too dry for the ponderosa to live naturally.

There's a link to some windbreak info from Nebraska, I came across. Hope it's useful and that you can stay out of the sun with a pencil and paper at the kitchen table.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Nebraska windbreaks

We have 10 Austrees in our backyard - planted by the previous owner as a windbreak/privacy fence - ugh. I have rarely watered them this year and they are fine, healthy and growing like weeds. However, we have a slight slope to our yard and they are at the bottom, so all the water rushes right down to them and they drink it up.

If you are planting them far away from a house/well/sewer system, they are probably great. However, if not, I have read that they can be problimatic because they tend to grow large but shallow root structures. I have also read that although they can grow several feet in one year, they are relatively short-lived trees. I have read they often die off around 15 years of age.

They do form quite a nice shady spot in the corner of our yard, but honestly if it were cheaper to remove them, I would. They just aren't meant for residential areas - despite what the salesmen would have you believe.

We also have inhopsitible soil here - lots of sand and some clay. They stand up well to the wind, but they do leave tons of tiny leaves and branches all over the yard.

Just my experience, hope it helps
Danelle

You guys give such good, well researched and thought out advice. I hope you know how much a newbie like me appreciates it. I was not very specific about our property size. It's 40 acres. I want good established trees in the front 5 before I decide how to handle the rest.

I don't really understand the logistics of how a tree can get into a well or septic but I hear that it can. It roots underneath and the roots rise and break it? It can break through the pipe and dip into the moisture? I know I sound very inexperienced but I'd like to know.

Tree roots usually get into pipes and septic tanks through small leaks in the joints, such as between two lengths of pipe or where the pipe enters the tank. First it's just little fibrous roots and then bigger ones eventually grow in and force a bigger opening. But a few fibrous roots in the pipe will quickly become a mass of them that clogs the flow. Some trees are more inclined to this characteristic because their adaptation is to spread far from the tree trunk to look for moisture, whereas others are less inclined because they tend to root deeper.